Desperate Parents Plea With Judge Not to Turn Off Their Son’s Life Support and Kill Him

International   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Feb 6, 2018   |   8:11PM   |   London, England

It would be difficult to imagine a more heart-wrenching scenario, eerily reminiscent of the now famous case of Charlie Gard.

As we posted back in December, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, has asked the court to allow the hospital to disconnect the life support systems of 20-month-old Alfie Evans.

His young parents, Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, are fighting to convince Mr. Justice Hayden to allow them to remove their son from Alder Hey and be taken to the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome. “They said the hospital would give him a tracheotomy and a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) to allow him to be fed through his stomach,” according to the BBC.

The hospital refuses, saying it is not in Alfie’s “best interests.” The family, the hospital, and various other parties are in the middle of a several-day-long hearing in which emotions, unsurprisingly, are running very high.

The Liverpool Echo has provided extensive coverage of Alfie’s case, which begins with the fact that what his exact condition defies explanation.

Reporter Tom Berger describes the infant’s condition as “currently in a ‘’deep coma’ in Alder Hey’s intensive care unit, suffering from a mystery brain condition and frequent seizures.”

Doctors testified that Alfie’s condition has grown progressively worse.

Adding to an already impossibly tense situation, Berger reports that Justice Hayden refused to adjourn the hearing to allow the father, currently operating as his own attorney, to find a new legal team.

[T]he judge said he had made clear last week he would not adjourn, adding: “You have dismissed seven lawyers.”

Then there was the description of how Alfie would die, if his ventilation was disconnected. Berger wrote earlier today

The heated scenes came less than an hour after the dad and others in the room were moved to tears by stark predictions for their son’s chances of survival without life support.

Mr. Evans had left the court briefly after being told his son could die within minutes of ventilation being completely withdrawn.

Mr. Justice Hayden had asked if it could be a matter of “five to 10 minutes” that Alfie would survive after all ventilation was withdrawn.

He said: “What is contemplated is a death that could be quite quick.”

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Mr. Evans again talked about something he and his partner have repeatedly asserted:

Mr. Evans’ voice cracked with emotion as he accused the doctor of “pressuring” him and his partner into ending life support early last year.

He said: “How come you and your colleagues tried to encourage and pressure us so much to turn his machine off, when we were waiting on test results that could have given us a diagnosis?”

The doctor said he did not recall asking for ventilation to be withdrawn last January.

A second doctor praised the couple for the way they had campaigned for their son.

She told the Liverpool civil and family court: “I think you have been amazing in the way you have asked questions, tested us, tried to come up with diagnoses.

“You have been tremendous and I applaud you for it.”

The case will resume tomorrow at 11.30 am.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.